Hats by Bill Cunningham up for auction

 

Right now, hats made by Bill Cunningham are up for auction. I found out from the NYT article

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/style/bill-cunningham-william-j-hats.html

which is full of some great tidbits and photos of the purchasers (and behind a paywall, apologies)

The photos of the hats themselves are on the auction website. More than just these four.

https://hindmanauctions.com/auctions/6324-spring-fashion-and-accessories?page=1&per=48&tab=lots#lot_8

Mending and Repairs, Family, Work and Sewing (why can't I use pins and thread to fix them?)

 

This year is throwing the entire trash can of trouble at me. I am not fond of sharing my personal life on this sewing blog, but it's rocky. Work has sucked a lot of my attention, it's not going well, and I have counted on work to distract me from my personal life. There is a high likelihood I will lose my job, or that my job will disappear. 

No, sewing is not a job. Not one that I can make enough money at.

(redacted gripe about how the standard response to something I've made is: you could sell that. No. Stop it. Not everything can or should be monetized)

Meanwhile, I made mittens. And then remade them because they were not warm enough. More often than not, when I sew a thing to fill a need, the act of creation eliminates the need. I'm sick of icy streets and sidewalks; make new mittens.

Voila! Winter, begone!

I know I made a mitten pattern or two, but I know I did not like the results so started over from available materials and first principles.  I have a fleece glove that fits just perfectly.

So I traced it off.

I have a lot of  fleece chunks and scrap from a project I did for SewBaby back last century (at least I haven't had to move so haven't had to ditch the useful stash).

I ended up handsewing them while I watched Svengoolie. It's a quick sew, it's repetitive in a soothing way, I could keep an even and very small seam allowance.

A little tailoring to fit

I wore them outside and rapidly realized they would need some lining to keep the wind out. 

Found some Spoonflower lycra scrap and put it on the interior non-thumb side.

Trusty hand model led to silly video at the start of this post.

In the same vein, I repaired the welts on my Orange "I am my own traffic cone" parka. 
I did not do as tidy or invisible a job, because I apparently alternate between doing a good job and an adequate one.

I am working on a pair of jeans, in moleskin, that I realized will need lining. This realization came pretty far into the process, so we're going to end up with a 'lining your jeans' focused post. Meanwhile, I am going to spend today working on the duties spreadsheet my boss has requested for our meeting tomorrow. 

Don't get comfortable.

PS: a new to me fix for a broken jacket zipper bottom tab on this video link (will start at the fix I am referencing). Low temp hot glue stick and a plastic straw!

https://youtu.be/xox768Pcwtg?si=MndJm4pxB4qPEBH3&t=45

That Sinking Feeling

Celebrating the new year by installing a new kitchen sink faucet

 

Fittings don't match, can't finish putting it in. Plus the hot water supply pipe won't entirely shut and is leaking about a gallon an hour

Pipe is draining to a garden hose to 

a garbage can in the basement.

To be fair, it's an old house and it's a new faucet. And in removing the old faucet, it finally broke, so I can't put it back on.

Happy new year!